Q&A with Nicholas von Hoffman

Journalist and author Nicholas von Hoffman talked about his career and his book, Radical: A Portrait of Saul Alinsky (Nation Books, 2010),…
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Journalist and author Nicholas von Hoffman talked about his career and his book, Radical: A Portrait of Saul Alinsky (Nation Books, 2010), which is based on his experiences prior to his journalism career working for ten years as a community activist in Chicago for Saul Alinsky. Mr. Alinsky is said to have influenced the community organizing of President Obama. Video clips from a 1967 documentary about Mr. Alinsky were shown in the background.

In the 1960s and '70s, Mr. von Hoffman wrote for the Washington Post, covering the civil rights movement and other issues. He also appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on the segment “Point-Counterpoint” with commentator Jack Kilpatrick. In 1974, program creator Don Hewitt fired Mr. von Hoffman for remarks he made about Richard Nixon. Mr. von Hoffman is the author of many books, including Citizen Cohn, a 1988 biography of attorney Roy Cohn that HBO made into a movie. close

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*The transcript for this program was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.